The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Hungary in regards to sentences imposed upon two inmates in the Hungarian prison system.

The ruling was made concerning 'the real life sentences' of two Hungarians, a sentence that carries a minimum of 40 years in prison, and was classed as 'inhuman and humiliating treatment', the court ruled.

The inmates filed claims with the court against regulations imposed by Hungary in 2015 in response to a previous European court ruling in their favor, arguing that 'the new law failed to ensure a genuine prospect of release from prison in their lifetimes'.

The court decided that too much time elapses before the first opportunity for a sentence review under Hungarian law, far longer than the maximum of 25 years recommended by the court in a previous ruling.

Strict criteria for clemency decisions made by a committee do not apply to the president, who has the last word on every plea, the court said, adding that the president also has no deadline to make such decisions and no obligation to justify them either.